Idris Khattak
Missing human rights activist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Idris Khattak is a Pakistani human rights activist.[1][2][3][4] In early December 2021 a military court sentenced Khattak to 14 years in prison for espionage.[5][6]
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Idris Khattak | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | November 19, 1963 Pakistan |
| Disappeared | 13 November 2019 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| Status | Imprisoned after a conviction by military court |
| Known for | Human rights work |
| Children | 2 |
Life
Idris Khattak was born in December 1963.[7] He had previously worked for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch[8] on a wide range of topics including people illegally disappeared by the military. He holds a PhD in anthropology from Saint Petersburg.[9][10]
Khattak has two daughters, Shumaisa and Talia.[11][12]
Abduction
Khattak was abducted by four individuals on the Swabi motorway interchange in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 13 November 2019.[13]
He was kept in solitary confinement since November 2019 by military intelligence[citation needed] in Pakistan. In February 2021 Amnesty International reported the Peshawar High Court had denied Khattak's appeal to be tried in a civilian court and that his trial would instead take place in a military court.[14][15]
Conviction
He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in a secret military court trial in late-2021, not being allowed to defend his case.[16] Human Rights Watch condemned the sentencing, saying that "Pakistan's security forces have with impunity long carried out enforced disappearances" and calling for him to tried publicly in a civilian court.[17] Amnesty International called the sentencing "the culmination of a shameful two-year process that has been unjust from start to finish" and saying that "enforced disappearances must, once and for all, be put to an end."[18]
